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RELIGST 261A:Belief (in a post-Christian Age)

The post-Chritain (or post-modern) age has given rise to new forms of faith, ranging from secular humanism and cultural atheism to rediscovery of the transcendent in the cosmos and quantum mechanics. However, unlike the era of "Christendom," belief is no longer necessarily hinged to faith. This course explores the origins of this phenomenon in Thomas Aquinas, and then newer philosophical approaches to understanding belief, ranging from Charles Taylor and Talal Asad and their theories of the secular, to Catherine Bell and the role of practice in believing. Finally, we turn to the work of three contemporary theorists of religious belief: Gianni Vattimo, Jean-Luc Marion, and Richard Kearney, who endeavor to cast believing outside established theological categories, yet still speak of "god."

| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

RELIGST 263:Judaism and the Body

Representations and discourses of the body in Jewish culture; theories of body and ritual. Case studies of circumcision, menstrual impurity, and intersexuality. Readings include classical texts in Jewish tradition and current discussions of these textual traditions.

Last offered: Autumn 2006
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender

RELIGST 271A:Dante's Spiritual Vision

Poetry, ethics, and theology in Dante's Divine Comedy. Supplementary readings from classical authors such as St. Thomas Aquinas, and from modern writers, such as Jorge Borges. Fulfills capstone seminar requirement for the Philosophy and Literature tracks. Students may take 271A without taking 271B. Consent of the instructor required.

Last offered: Autumn 2015
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

RELIGST 271B:Dante's Spiritual Vision

Poetry, ethics, and theology in Dante's Divine Comedy. Supplementary readings from classical authors such as St. Thomas, and from modern writers, such as Jorge Borges. Fulfills capstone seminar requirement for the Philosophy and Literature tracks. Prerequisite: 271A

Last offered: Winter 2016
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

RELIGST 273:Historicism and Its Problems: Ernst Troeltsch, the Study of Religion, and the Crisis of Historicism (RELIGST 373)

Examination of the early twentieth-century historian of religion, philosopher of culture, sociologist of religion, Christian theologian, and philosopher of history, Ernst Troeltsch, within the context of the late nineteenth-century "crisis of historicism," i.e., the historicization and relativization of religious, ethical, social, and political norms. Attention to seminal theorists of history (Herder, Kant, Ranke, Hegel, Nietzsche) in the post-Enlightenment German intellectual tradition and the attempts of Christian and Jewish thinkers in the Weimar era (Barth, Gogarten, Rosenzweig, L. Strauss) to "overcome" the crisis wrought by a radically historical approach to human culture.

Last offered: Autumn 2013
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

RELIGST 274:From Kant to Kierkegaard (RELIGST 374)

(Graduate students register for 374. Undergrads register for 274 for 5 units.) The philosophy of religion emerged from the European Enlightenment as a new genre of reflection on religion distinct from both dogmatic theology and rationalist dreams of a "natural" religion of reason. Neither beholden to pre-critical tradition, nor dismissive of what Thomas Nagel has termed "the religious attitude," this new, ostensibly secular, genre of religious thought sought to rethink the meaning of Christianity at a time of immense philosophical ferment. The main currents of religious thought in Germany from Kant's critical philosophy to Kierkegaard's revolt against Hegelianism. Emphasis on the theories of religion, the epistemological status of religious discourse, the role of history (especially the figure of Jesus), and the problem of alienation/reconciliation in seminal modern thinkers: Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Kierkegaard.

Last offered: Autumn 2014
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

RELIGST 275:Kierkegaard (RELIGST 375)

(Graduate students register for 375.) Close reading of Kierkegaard's magnum opus,
Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, in its early 19th-century context.

Lectures and seminar discussions of the problematic of the later Heidegger (1930 - 1976) in the light of his entire project. Readings from "On the Origin of the Work of Art" and Elucidations of Holderlin's Poetry.

Last offered: Autumn 2012
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

RELIGST 280:Schleiermacher: Reconstructing Religion (RELIGST 380)

Idealist philosopher, Moravian pietist, early German Romantic, co-founder of the University of Berlin, head preacher at Trinity Church, translator of Plato's works, Hegel's opponent, pioneer in modern hermeneutics, father of modern theology. Schleiermacher's controversial reconception of religion and theology in its philosophical context.

Last offered: Autumn 2010
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

RELIGST 283A:Heidegger, Hölderlin, and the Gods (RELIGST 383A)

The radical transformations in Western notions of God between the death of Hegel and the birth of historical materialism, arguing that questions about theism and atheism, humanism, and history formulated in the period 1831-50 are still pertinent. Texts from Hegel, the young Hegelians, Feuerbach, and Marx on issues of God, history, and the social dimensions of human nature.